Armistice Lecture: Medical care and medical pacifism
2023-11-09 18:30 - 20:00 (Europe/London) | Edith Morley, Room G27
Join Dr Fiona Reid for this year’s annual Armistice lecture to unveil the history of medical pacifism during and after the Great War.
The First World War was a machine war which lasted for over four years. Approximately 8 million soldiers died while about 20 million were wounded, and many millions were either disabled or debilitated for the rest of their lives. During the war, men and women responded to these casualty rates by working with military-medical services or with voluntary organisations such as the Red Cross or the Friends Ambulance Unit. They were motivated by the firm belief that ‘Our duty is to save’ and that ‘binding the wounds of war’ was a humanitarian act. Yet others interpreted military-medical service differently, and saw wartime medical work as somehow complicit with militarism.
After the war, a small but vocal medical pacifist movement emerged to argue that all medics should refuse completely to co-operate with military-medical services on any level. Interwar medical pacifism did not succeed in preventing future wars and few now support the idea of a ‘medical strike’ but their debates raised questions which remain pertinent now: What should medics do during wartime? To what extent does their work alleviate the pain of war and to what extent does it prolong war?
About the speaker
Dr Fiona Reid is an historian of the social and cultural history of war and has written widely about the First World War in Europe and about refugees and displaced people in the Second World War. She is particularly interested in the consequences of war trauma and in the coping mechanisms of combat troops, medical personnel and civilians both during war and afterwards.

PhD to Head of Department: Deepa Senapathi | Career Champions Event
2023-11-15 13:00 - 14:00 | Edith Morley, Room G27
Join Reading’s BAME+ allies network and Women@Reading+ allies network for an inspiring event with expert and guest speaker, Dr Deepa Senapathi.
Dr Senapathi’s journey in academia is testament to her commitment, expertise and excellence. Primarily Deepa’s research centres on environmental change/impact on biodiversity and ecosystems, in particular climate change and land-use change on avian populations and insect pollinator communities.
The talk will take place on Wednesday 15 November from 1300-1400 at room G27, Edith Morley building. All welcome. Accessible online. Booking essential. Light lunch provided.
For more information, contact bame.network@reading.ac.uk and womensnetwork@reading.ac.ukLearn about Staģ Networks at www.reading.ac.uk/diversity/getting -involved/networks.

Natural History Museum Collections & Culture workshop
2023-11-20 11:00 - 16:00 | Museum of English Rural Life (The MERL), Redlands Road, Reading, RG1 5EX, United Kingdom
As part of the University’s developing partnership with the Natural History Museum (NHM), and as a return visit by NHM curators and researchers to the trip a number of us made to South Kensington in early May, we will be holding a joint workshop day at The MERL on 20th November 11-4pm.
Organised in collaboration with colleagues in UMASCS and the Collections and Culture Theme at NHM, the day will be a chance to develop individual relationships, share research enthusiasms and to advance more concrete plans to develop joint activities, including joint grant applications and doctoral training collaborations.
Agenda

11:00
Welcome and coffee

11:15
1-minute introductions.
Slides are encouraged from all participants in advance (please submit to Beth Steiner: e.steiner@reading.ac.uk by 14th November).

12:15
Object-based discussion

13:15
Lunch

14:00
Strategic breakout groups I
Proposed themes include:

Maritime Exploration and Monitoring [voyages of discovery; collectors at sea and maritime impact of collections; aligning specimens and documentation with ships’ logs and written histories]
India and Hidden Collectors [botanical hidden histories; decolonisation of collections; exploring the histories of the people who collected the specimens but whose names don’t feature in the record]
One Health [the integrated health of people, animals, plants, and environment; zoonotic research; the human-nature relationship from the past to the future and the public dialogue around it]
Creative Approaches to the Natural History Museum’s Collections, especially visual and material culture, including data and digitisation

15:00
Refreshments

15:10
Strategic breakout groups II – feedback and future planning.

16:00
End

These breakout group themes are not exhaustive and we would welcome further suggestions for breakout groups, which we can facilitate according to demand. Please respond to the question in the form when you register so we can try to accommodate as many areas of interest as possible.
Lunch and refreshments will be provided.
Please register here by Friday 3rd November.

Algorithmic Contracts and Consumer Law – thoughts from ELI’s Guiding Principles and Model Rules for Algorithmic Contracts project
2023-11-23 12:00 - 13:00 | Palmer Building, Room 103
Exciting technological developments offer increased potential for contract automation. After much excitement about “smart contracts”, the focus has now shifted to contract automation through algorithmic decision making (ADM) based on artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms, especially deep-learning algorithms.
Imagine a new form of “digital assistant” which would not only assist a consumer in identifying possible purchase options (as is already the case with digital voice assistants and some chatbots) but take over the conclusion of routine contracts for a consumer. Would taking a consumer out of the decision-making loop altogether pose new challenges for (consumer) contract law? The European Law Institute (ELI) is part-way through a project exploring the many legal implications of utilising AI-driven ADM in contracting. Its first, interim, output focuses on testing the ADMreadiness of the current EU consumer law acquis. This paper will sketch the main elements of this interim report and suggest pointers for the continuing debate around algorithmic contracting.
About the speaker
Professor Christian Twigg-Flesner LL.B. PCHE Ph.D. (Sheffield) is professor of Contract and Consumer Law at the University of Warwick. His research and teaching interests are in the areas of Contract, Consumer and Commercial Law, with a particular focus on the implications of digitalisation. His research covers English, European and International dimensions.
Book your free place on the University Store.

IFNH: Funding outcomes showcase
2023-11-24 13:00 - 14:20
Join us at the IFNH dissemination event showcasing the funding outcomes from the awarded 2022 projects. The event will take place online on Friday 24th November at 13:00 – 14:30 via Teams. Click here to join the meeting and please share the invitation within your school/group.

13:00 – 13:10 Welcome – Professor Ian Givens, Director IFNH
13:10 – 13:20 Presentation: SEE & EAT: Development of promotional materials to enhance user engagement by Natalie Ellison, Research Assistant, School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences
13:20 – 13:30 Presentation: Qualitatively exploring the enablers and barriers for healthy eating and attitudes towards a personalised nutrition app in UK University students by Michelle Weech, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Food & Nutritional Sciences
13:30 – 13:40 Presentation: Agrinatura General Assembly in Prague presented by Jurgen Peci, Graduate Teaching Assistant in Agricultural Economics, Agri-Food Economics & Marketing
13:40 – 13:50 Presentation: International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics Conference by Patricia Sanz Morales, Research Student, Food & Nutritional Sciences
13:50 – 14:00 Presentation: ASN’s Nutrition 2023 by Kim Vogtschmidt, Research Student, Food & Nutritional Sciences
14:00 – 14:10 Presentation: Federation of European Nutrition Societies (FENS) by Daniel James, Research Student, Food & Nutritional Sciences
14:10 – 14:20 Presentation: 15th Pangborn Sensory Science Symposium by Dimitra Zannidi, Research Student, Food & Nutritional Sciences
14:20 – 14:30 Q & A

Player vs. Monster: The Making and Breaking of Video Game Monstrosity
2023-11-25 15:00 - 16:30 | Reading Museum, Blagrave Street, Reading, Berkshire, RG1 1HQ, United Kingdom
Video games seem to teach us that monsters must be fought and can be defeated. Join Dr Jarosłav Švelch from Charles University in Prague to explore how this came to be. Do games offer potential for more nuanced representations of monstrosity?

Stickers as self-authorised ‘publishing’ in urban spaces: The graphic language, themes, and localisations of stickers in the Ruhr area, Germany
2023-11-30 17:00 - 18:00 | Typography, TOB 2, Room T4, Earley Gate, University of Reading, Reading, RG6 6AU
Speaker: Dr Irmi Wachendorff (University of Reading)

This research seminar is free & open to all.
Join us in person in the University of Reading’s Department of Typography, Room T4.
To join via MS Teams, please register here.

Dr Irmi Wachendorff’s presentation will analyse a dataset of 5500 tagged and geo-referenced stickers in public space from the Signs of the Metropolis research project (Ziegler et al. 2022) which explored visual multilingualism in the Ruhr area in Germany. She will focus on typographic and semiotic visual analysis, discuss stickers in comparison to other signs in urban space, and examine the publicised themes.
Stickers are one of the smallest and yet – on looking closer – one of the most visually expressive and liberated forms of signs in urban space (Wachendorff 2021). Clustered on dedicated canvases such as lampposts, road signs and electricity boxes, they are placed by various stakeholders with different goals: supporters of political parties, protest movements, members of football clubs, music fans, sticker artists, and commercial actors. Stickering is an act of democratisation and place-making in which citizens as authors negotiate their social and cultural positions through visual signs in the urban environment (Vasileva 2021).
Dr Wachendorff is an Associate Professor in the Department of Typography and Graphic Communication at the University of Reading. She is a graphic designer and design historian with specialisations in typography and sociolinguistics. Her PhD focussed on ‘Typographic Landscapes – Letters in Cities as Social Artefacts’ at the University of Duisburg-Essen and was funded by the German Academic Scholarship Foundation. Irmi is passionate about design education, the practice, theory and history of graphic communication, typography and visual culture, lettering in urban space, the relationship of typography and language, and the bridge between graphic design and sociolinguistic disciplines.

Under the Bed and Among the Dead: Monsters in Ancient Egypt
2023-12-05 18:00 - 19:30 | Reading Museum, Blagrave Street, Reading, Berkshire, RG1 1HQ, United Kingdom
Learn from Dr Jordan Miller from the University of Cambridge about the fearsome qualities of some famous (and lesser-known) supernatural beings from ancient Egypt, the situations in which ancient Egyptians encountered them, and whether we might call them monsters.

Heinemann and Biafractivist Authors: Politics of Publishing the Rebel
2023-12-07 17:00 - 18:00 | Edith Morley, Room 125, Edith Morley Building, University of Reading, Reading, Berkshire, RG6 6UR, United Kingdom
Speaker: Dr Abba Abba (University of Reading)

This research seminar is free & open to all.
Join us in person in the Edith Morley Building, Room 125.
To join via MS Teams, register here.
Dr Abba Abba’s paper interrogates the archival and literary evidence of Heinemann’s minoritization of Biafran voices and politicisation of publishing them during the Nigeria-Biafra war. It argues that some significant publisher-author correspondences and unpublished materials reflecting the perspectives of Biafractivist authors, which are kept at the African Writers Series’ Archive at the University of Reading, can function as research tools for engaging and reclaiming the perceived “rebel” authors’ voices and the publisher’s ambivalent circumstances during the war. Relying on a postcolonial reading of Homi Bhabha’s “Third space” as a theoretical strategy, and deploying archival methodology and its application to literary intersectionality, it teases out how these materials represent Biafrans as “outsiders within” Nigeria., and why Biafran voices fall through the cracks in the war’s historicity through an analysis of their experiences in selected documents and unpublished materials on the war
♣
Dr Abba Abba is currently a British Academy Visiting Research Fellow, Department of English Literature, University of Reading, with some research visits at the Special Collections Archive at MERL. He is a Fellow of the German Academic Exchange Service – DAAD (completed a postdoctoral Research Fellowship at Humboldt University, Berlin, 2018–2019). He is also a Fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies (completed his another Postdoctoral Fellowship in the African Humanities Programme with Residency at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania 2021–2022). Abba won the Nigeria-LNG Prize for Literary Criticism 2019 as well as the Association of Nigerian Authors Prizes for Literary Criticism for both 2019 and 2022. Author of the novel The Ugly Queen, and the plays Lunatic on the Throne and The Blood Price, Abba’s research interests cut across the conversations of literature with cultural, ecocritical and archival ecologies. A Lecturer in the Department of English and Literary Studies, Federal University Lokoja, Nigeria, Abba has previously served as the Head, Department of English and Literary Studies, Edwin Clark University, Kiagbodo Nigeria. He received his MA and PhD in Comparative Literature at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

What really happened at COP28?
2023-12-15 11:00 - 12:30 | Sutcliffe Lecture Theatre, Room GU01, Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, Whiteknights, RG6 6AH
The 28th Conference of Parties, COP28, is currently in full swing in Dubai. With heated debates on the phase out of fossil fuel and climate finance currently happening on the ground, we are yet to see the final outcomes of this year’s climate conference such as the Global Stocktake.

What are the topics we have made progress on this year? How is it like to be at COP on the ground? Why do we need these climate conferences anyway? To explore some of these questions together, we invite you to join our What really happened at COP28?event held on Friday, December 15th at 11am in the Sutcliffe Theatre, Brian Hoskins Building in the Department of Meteorology. Students and staff from the University of Reading who attended COP on the ground in Dubai and in the Newsroom in Reading, will share their perspectives on the conference. We will cover the overall outcomes as well as specific topics that we have engaged with more deeply such as biodiversity, loss and damages and the rights and perspective of indigenous peoples.

The event will showcase videos and other media output produced by students, reflect on the role of the University at these climate conferences and provide a space for you to ask and discuss all the questions you have around COP28.

We hope to see many of you there,
The COP Climate Action Studio Team of 2023

The Reign of the Dinosaurs | Children's Christmas Lecture
2023-12-20 16:30 - 17:30 | Palmer Building, G10
Book your place

Have you ever wondered how the dinosaurs came to rule the world? Join Dr Ciara O’Donovan as we travel back 230 million years to revisit the Mesozoic Earth.
We will meet the ancestor of all dinosaurs (who may surprise you!) and follow the dinosaurs as they spread across the globe. Journeying through time, we’ll watch as one species evolved into hundreds with varying shapes and sizes. Finally, find out what happened when the world was filled with dinosaurs and how a gigantic asteroid colliding with Earth ended their story. Or did it?
Admission is free. Booking essential, reservations on a first-come, first-served basis.
Suitable for children 7-12 years.
The lecture will be interpreted in British Sign Language (BSL) by an interpreter.

Call for papers: Digital Humanities and Artificial Intelligence
2024-01-20 17:00
The call for papers has now closed. For further details of the conference, please visit the Digital Humanities website.

CFP
DIGITAL HUMANITIES & ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
One-Day Conference at the University of Reading
17 June, 2024

Keynote Speaker:
Dr Barbara McGillivray
(King’s College London)

We invite scholars, researchers, and practitioners to participate in a focused exploration of the intersections between Digital Humanities (DH) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) at a one-day conference at the University of Reading.
The conference will feature three distinct strands, each proving a unique perspective on the evolving landscape of DH-AI:
Strand 1: Cultural Heritage

Explore the role of artificial intelligence in preserving, interpreting, and making accessible cultural heritage.
Discuss innovative projects and technologies that digitise, catalog, and safeguard cultural artifacts and historical sites.
Examine the impact of AI on the study and dissemination of cultural heritage.

Strand 2: Ethics

Delve into the ethical considerations and challenges posed by the use of AI in Digital Humanities.
Discuss issues of bias, representation, and inclusivity in AI-driven research and projects
Explore strategies and best practices for ensuring ethical AI applications in the digital humanities

Strand 3: Synthetic Media

Investigate the creative potential of AI-generated content, such as art, music, literature and virtual environments.
Showcase projects that leverage synthetic media for storytelling, cultural expression, and education.
Examine the ethical and cultural implications of AI-generated content in the Digital Humanities.

We welcome submissions in the following formats:

Individual research papers
Panel Proposals

Please submit your proposal by 20 January, 2024 following the guidelines below.
The conference will also lay the groundwork for a special edition of Digital Humanities Quarterly. If you are unable to attend the conference, but want to contribute to the DHQ special edition, please send your abstract by 30 July, 2024. See guidelines below for further details.

Guidelines for Submission & Timeline
Please submit your abstract (250 words) including a brief biography (200 words), affiliation and email address to DH-AI-Conference@reading.ac.uk by 20 January, 2024.

CONFERENCE DATE: Monday 17 June, 2024
Abstract Submission Deadline: 20 January, 2024
Notification of Acceptance: 15 February, 2024
Program and Registration opens: 1 March, 2024
Registration closes: 1 May, 2024
Abstract Submission for DHQ Special Issue: 30 July, 2024
Article Submission Deadline: 1 December 2024
Submission to DHQ: 15 January 2025

This is a free event sponsored by the Digital Humanities CoP at the University of Reading. Places are limited and registration is required.
For any inquiries, please contact the organising committee at
DH-AI-Conference@reading.ac.uk

Organising Committee:
Dr Mara Oliva, Associate Professor in History and DH Champion
Dr Dominic Lees, Associate Professor in Film, Theatre and Television and Steering Committee Member of Synthetic Media Research Network
Dr Jumbly Grindrod, Lecturer in Philosophy
Professor James Ferryman, Professor of Computational Vision
Dr Rachel Lewis, Research Development Manager for Heritage & Creativity
Dr Bonhi Bhattacharya, Senior Research Manager for Environment and Agriculture and Food and Health

Human vs machine: what can corpus linguistics contribute to our understanding of large collections of texts?
2024-02-07 14:00 - 15:30 | Palmer 103
Keynote Speaker: Professor Sylvia Jaworska, Department of English Language and Applied Linguistics
A collaboration between Heritage & Creativity and Prosperity & Resilience on Wednesday 7 February 2024 from 14:00-15.30.
Location: Palmer 103 and Online

14.00
Welcome and introduction
Dr Mara Olivia, Digital Humanities Champion
Professor Roberta Gilchrist, Research Dean, Heritage & Creativity
Professor Adrian Bell, Research Dean, Prosperity & Resilience

14.10
Keynote address: Human vs machine: what can corpus linguistics contribute to our understanding of large collections of texts?
Professor Sylvia Jaworska

14.40
Roundtable
Dr Jonathan Golub (Politics & International Relations): “Treating the text of EU legislative proposals as data”
Dr Rachel Foxley (History): “A beginner’s project in textual analysis: political polarisation in the English Civil War”
Professor Mike Goodman (Geography & Environmental Science): “Analysing the texts of #CovidTwitter and getting students to de-normalise the world through frame analysis”

15.10
Q&A

15.30
What’s next for the Digital Humanities Community of Practice and Hub? and close.
Dr Mara Olivia

Abstracts
In this talk, I will first outline key principles underlying the linguistically informed approach of corpus linguistics which has been adopted to study discourse in large collections of texts (corpora). I will focus in particular on the analytical tools of frequency, concordance, collocation and keyword and the software programme Sketch Engine to show the benefits of this approach to identify and examine discourse patterns and topics in large text corpora. Examples will include collaborative work conducted with researchers from HBS, SAGES and Pharmacy. The second part will compare the corpus approach with another popular method widely used in social sciences, that of topic modelling, which was developed in computer science. It will report on insights from a small quasi-experiment in which the two approaches were used to identify topics in a corpus of sustainability reports. The talk explores how the identified topics were similar and different and what this means for the analytical power of the two methods. I will conclude with a series of tentative observations regarding the benefits and limitations of each method and recommendations for researchers in choosing analytical technique to study large collections of texts available digitally.
Speakers
Professor Sylvia Jaworska explores professional communication in (new) media, business and health settings focusing predominantly (but not exclusively) on the ways in which language and other semiotic choices are used to construct identities and perpetuate social stereotyping, biases and stigma. She examines discourse and communication using tools and techniques from corpus linguistics and discourse analysis as well as other quantitative and qualitative methods adopted in linguistics and social sciences including interviews, focus groups and surveys. Dr Jonathan Golub is a political scientist using quantitative and qualitative methods to analyse decision making in the European Union. He is particularly interested in modelling the EU policymaking process and issues of institutional performance, such as the role of formal versus informal rules, the potential trade-off between efficiency and democratic legitimacy, and the distribution of power between Member States and supranational actors. His research interests also include modelling UN Security Council decision making, evaluating the effects of economic sanctions, studying the determinants of national and global environmental policy, and understanding judicial politics. Dr Rachel Foxley’s work focuses on the history of political language and political thought, particularly in seventeenth-century England. Her PhD and first book were on the Levellers, and looked at the way in which this remarkably audacious network of activists and pamphleteers adapted and reworked the less radical thought of the parliamentarian cause which they had supported. Her more recent and current work focuses particularly on the writings of the English republican writers of the seventeenth century, including John Milton, James Harrington, Marchamont Nedham, Henry Neville, and Algernon Sidney. She is working on a book on their complex and perhaps conflicted treatments of the idea of democracy, and have published several shorter pieces on them. She has an abiding interest in the reception of classical ideas in early modern Europe, which is highly relevant to this project, and she is co-editing the Brill’s Companion to the Legacy of Greek Political Thought with David Carter and Elizabeth Sawyer. She is also interested in the gendered aspects of political texts and political thought, and hopes to focus on this more in future work. Professor Mike Goodman is an interdisciplinary, critical human geographer focusing on the cultural politics of food, humanitarianism and the environment. Research topics have included fair trade networks, alternative food networks, the rise of celebrity politics in the context of food, climate change and global development and ways society is attempting to make life more just, liveable and care-full in the Anthropocene. He is particularly interested in conceptualising how these issues and connections are framed in the media in order to understand their social and geographical significance to building more sustainable societies, challenging existing structures of power and offering critical spaces for marginalised voices. If you are not already a member, you are welcome to join the Digital Humanities Community of Practice via our MS Teams channel. (This link will take you to the Teams channel. If you are not already a member, you will be presented with a dialogue box that says ‘Join’. Click this to send a request, which will be approved if you are a member of the University of Reading. If you are already a member of the Team, this link just takes you directly to the ‘General’ channel.) or email the DH Champion, Dr Mara Oliva (m.oliva@reading.ac.uk)
Within the COP, you will be able to introduce yourself, share your research, and access information about funding opportunities, support, and events. Read more here.
Our events are open to all researchers, staff, and PGRs from any subject – we welcome interdisciplinary collaboration!

My Mother Tongue: A celebration of community languages
2024-02-21 11:00 - 13:00 | Lifespring Church, 143 Oxford Road, RG1 7UY
Join the Centre for Literacy and Multilingualism (CeLM) to celebrate International Mother Language Day. The free, family friendly event will showcase and celebrate some of the languages spoken in Reading.
Free to attend. Light refreshments served.
Register using this Microsoft form.

Beyond Scale: GIS and the Humanities
2024-02-28 14:00 - 15:30 | Palmer 105, University of Reading, Whiteknights Campus, Reading, Select a State or Province:, RG6 6EW, United Kingdom
Beyond Scale: GIS and the Humanities
Professor Stuart Dunn
(King’s College London)
Date: Wednesday 28 February 2024
Time: 14:00-15.30
Place: Palmer 105 and Online
Programme
Coffee and Tea available from 13.50
14.00 Welcome and Intro – Dr Mara Oliva (DH Champion)
14.10 Keynote address: Professor Stuart Dunn (King’s College London) – ‘Beyond Scale: GIS and the Humanities’
14.50 Q&A
15.25 What’s next (DH CoP and Hub – future events) & close – Dr Mara Oliva

Future Health: Can nutrition and lifestyle combine to make a global impact? IFNH Annual Forum 2024
2024-02-28 14:00 - 17:00
The 2024 IFNH Forum event will be held on 28 February (14:00-17:00).
This year the theme will look to the future to explore what new developments in nutrition and its interaction with lifestyle can help reduce the massive burden of some key non-communicable diseases including dementia. This will include how effects of food cultures can impact the need to change dietary habits and how the needed dietary changes can be affected by social inequalities and climate change. The Forum will probe key aspects of these substantial challenges.
The event is free to attend, please Click Here to register your attendance and forward this invitation to colleagues you think may be interested.
Programme

14:00
Welcome
Prof. Carol Wagstaff, Research Dean for Agriculture, Food and Health, University of Reading

14:05
IFNH – activities and achievements of 2023
Prof. Ian Givens, IFNH Director, University of Reading

14:15
Cognition and Dementia: Milk fat globule membrane, supplementation for promotion of neurodevelopment in infants and prevention of neurodegeneration in ageing adults
Dr Javier Fontecha, Head, Food Lipid Biomarkers and Health, Institute of Food Science Research (CIAL,CSIC) in the Autónoma University of Madrid

14:45
Dietary fibre: How can we increase intake of this important dietary
component?
Prof. Julie Lovegrove, Director Hugh Sinclair Unit of Human Nutrition, University of Reading

15:05
Cognitive function and mood: The effects of flavonoid-rich blueberries
in healthy children and adults
Prof. Claire Williams, Chair of Neuroscience, School of Psychology & Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading

15:30
Obesity: Diet, lifestyle and genes in an obesogenic environment
Prof. John Mathers, Professor of Human Nutrition, Human Nutrition & Exercise
Research Centre, Newcastle University

16:00
Food culture: Dietary diversity and farm decision making for
resilient agrifood systems in the Global South
Prof. Henny Osbahr, Co-Head, Department of International Development, School of
Agriculture, Policy and Development, University of Reading

16:20
Diet, health, and social inequalities: Adaptation and mitigation strategies with indigenous cooperatives in Latin America
Dr Claudia Murray, Research Fellow, Department of Real Estate and Planning,
Henley Business School, University of Reading

16:40
Q&A
Chaired by Prof. Ian Givens and Prof. Vimal Karani

17:00
Formal close

Download the programme
Download the speakers’ biographies

Scouting, Translating, and Publishing Young Adult Literature from Latin America
2024-02-28 17:00 - 18:30 | Palmer 104, University of Reading, Whiteknights Campus, Reading, RG6 6EW, United Kingdom
The Centre for Book Cultures and Publishing in partnership with Outside in World, the organisation dedicated to promoting and exploring world literature and children’s books in translation, are delighted to announce the latest event in their seminar series on translation for children:
Speakers: Claire Storey (Translator/ World Kid Lit) and Rosemarie Hudson (HopeRoad Publishing)

This seminar is a hybrid event (in-person & on Zoom) and is free & open to all.

To register for the Zoom link, please click here.
To join us in person, come to Room 104, Palmer Building, University of Reading (Whiteknights campus), RG6 6EW

In 2021, Claire Storey (Translator/ World Kid Lit) applied for funding from Arts Council England for a project focusing on translating and pitching Young Adult literature from Latin America to UK publishers. In this webinar, she will discuss her project, how she identified Latin America as her focus area, how she pitched the project to UK publishers and what she has learned about scouting and pitching along the way.
Claire will be joined by Rosemarie Hudson (HopeRoad Publishing) who will talk about why she set up HopeRoad Publishing in 2010 and how three of the titles from Claire’s project fitted with her publishing objectives: Never Tell Anyone Your Name by Federico Ivanier (Uruguay), The Darkness of Colours by Martín Blasco (Argentina) and The Wild Ones by Antonio Ramos Revillas (Mexico). Rosemarie and Claire will also discuss how their relationship as publisher and translator has grown and been mutually beneficial.
♣
Claire Storey – translates from German and Spanish into English, specialising in middle grade and young adult literature. In 2021/22, she was awarded funding from Arts Council England for a translation project focusing on Young Adult Literature from Latin America. From 2019-2023, Claire was co-editor of the blog at World Kid Lit and remains involved in the project highlighting translated books for you people. Claire also acts as an international book scout, seeking out and presenting suitable Spanish and German-language books to English-speaking publishers. Claire regularly volunteers in schools talking about careers with languages and was named Outreach Champion 2021 by the UK Institute of Translation and Interpreting.
Jamaican/British Rosemarie Hudson grew up in London and it’s where she founded her first independent publishing company BlackAmber in 1998. Its ethos was to publish unheard voices in English and international languages, and in particular the best writers and writings from Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. Its aim she’s pursued ever since. She published many authors to critical acclaim during this period including Patricia Cumper; Alex Wheatle; Cauvery Madhavan; Rachel Manley; Yvonne Brewster and Gaston-Paul Effa, before her company was bought out. Often called a ‘trailblazer’,
Rosemarie is a keen and experienced mentor, serving on the board of the Book Trade Charity (BTBS) for six years and mentoring on the Arts Council project, Decibel.
About HopeRoad
In 2010 Rosemarie Hudson founded HopeRoad, the indie publisher which loves to share untold stories around identity, cultural stereotyping and injustice, and specialises in encouraging new talent and promoting the best literary voices from and about Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. HopeRoad’s authors include: Tahar Ben Jelloun; Kamala Markandaya: Cauvery Madhavan; Pete Kalu; Ferdinand Dennis; Yan Ge, Max Lobe; Véronique Tadjo, Igiaba Scego, John Agard and Tony Fairweather to name a few. Rosemarie is also a board member of Inpress Books. She is excited about the future for HopeRoad and very much looking forward to celebrating its forthcoming 15th anniversary.

University of Reading and Natural History Museum Collaborative Research Fellowship Information Day
2024-03-07 10:00 - 16:00 | Palmer Building, Whiteknights Campus, University of Reading.
Thursday 7th March 2024, 10:00 – 16:00
Palmer Building, Whiteknights Campus, University of Reading
Are you considering a Postdoctoral Fellowship Grant application in 2024? The partnership offers new opportunities for collaborative research across a broad range of disciplines. This event aims at attracting interest from high-potential ECRs who may wish to apply for an independent research fellowship to be held jointly at the University of Reading and Natural History Museum.
The partnership would like to invite applications to attend an Information Day from ECRs who may wish to apply for an independent research fellowship to be held jointly at the University of Reading and Natural History Museum*. In addition to support with fellowship applications and project design, we offer the potential to work at two dynamic, research-intensive organisations, together with a programme of support which will help to establish successful applicants’ careers and independence as academic researchers.
Applicants are asked to complete a short application form to register their interest in attending and outline their proposed areas of research. Projects which could build meaningful collaborations between the organisations, and which have strong potential in the sustainability/environmental science area, are encouraged.
Applicants to attend must be considering a fellowship which has the potential to undertake meaningful research in an area of study which is of relevance to both organisations.
Some key areas of strength and research themes can be found here.
Lunch and refreshments will be provided. Travel expenses from UK applicants can be covered.
Please email your completed application form, together with a brief CV, to NHM-UoR-partnership@nhm.ac.uk by Sunday 11th February 2024. We will issue invitations to the event to all successful applicants no later than Friday 23rd February.
Please use the same email address for any queries regarding the application process, the Information Day or the partnership as a whole.
Download the application form here.
Agenda:

10.00: Arrival with refreshments
10.30: Introduction to the UoR-NHM partnership
10.45: Introduction to UoR’s research themes
11.00: Introduction to NHM’s research themes
11.15: My Experience as a Fellowship Holder talks
12.00: Networking Lunch and chance to look around campus
13.30: Supporting you with your Fellowship
14.30: Q&A session (involving all presenters)
15.00: Closing remarks
15.10: Informal networking session with refreshments
16.00: End

*Target fellowship schemes include: UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship, BBSRC Discovery Fellowship, STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellowship, NERC Independent Fellowship, The Wellcome Trust Career Development Awards, Royal Society University Research Fellowship, Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship, Daphne Jackson Trust Fellowship, Branco-Weiss Research Fellowship.

CBCP Children’s Literature Workshop: Identities and Visibility in Children’s Print Culture Archives and Collections
2024-03-07 16:00 - 18:00 | Online
This workshop hears from three recent CBCP visiting fellows and their research in the children’s culture and the children’s collections held at the University of Reading. Their papers will explore the ways archives and collections (interpreted broadly) can make visible different actors, agents, writers and themes in print culture for children and the construction of identities.
This online workshop is free & open to all.
To join us via MS Teams, please register here.

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Paper 1:
Aleksandra Wieczorkiewicz, Where the Translators Are (in Victorian Periodicals for Children)
Translators are among the most important agents in children’s literature. But they were often – especially in the early stages of its evolution – marginalized and placed in the background. Not mentioned on the title pages or hidden under pseudonyms or initials they were “invisible storytellers” and “the great disappeared of literary history” (Lathey 2014). In her presentation Where the Translators Are (in the Victorian Periodicals for Children), Aleksandra will talk about the project she carried out in the UoR Special Collections as the CBCP Visiting Research Fellow 2022–23. Its primary objective was to explore the visibility of translators in Victorian children’s periodicals such as Aunt’s Judy Magazine, Good Words for the Young and The Children’s Friend: to find out who the translators working for the periodicals were, whether they left their signature in the texts (in form of prefaces, footnotes, accompanying articles etc.), in which periodicals – if in any – they were most visible, and what this tells us about the position of the translators at the time.
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Paper 2:
Simona Di Martino, “Do you want to be a Nurse?”: Girl and the British Educational Magazines for Girls in 1950s
British girls’ magazines and comics flourished in the UK from the 1950s through the 1970s. The first girls’ magazines, School Friend and Girl, appeared in the early 1950s, even though the girls’ comics trend took off in the latter half of the 1950s, with the long-running titles Bunty and Judy. Magazines for girls have long been regarded as a minor source for the history of education and children’s literature. However, these publications allow us to understand ethical models and values related to a specific historical period. Particularly, my visiting fellowship at the CBCP allowed me to consult the UoR’s Special Collections and analyse many issues of the educational magazine Girl by Hulton Press. This magazine, founded by the Rev. Marcus Morris in 1951, was very much an educational magazine whose heroines, including those who got into scrapes, became involved in tales that had a moral substance and showcased several jobs and careers that young women could pursue. This paper aims to examine the British educational magazine Girl and to assess the ways in which it promoted active and ‘visible’ models of girlhood. Such an analysis will pave the way for a comparative investigation of other European markets for girls, such as the more lacunary Italian one.
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Paper 3:
Margarida Castellano, Making visible Antifascist and totalitarian discourses in Children’s & YA literature in Spain, 1936 to 2023
This presentation examines the role of children’s and young adult literature in Spain as a medium to confront and undermine fascist and totalitarian ideologies from the Spanish Civil War to 2023. It specifically centers on the 1937 Cartilla Escolar Antifascista and subsequent multimodal texts, illustrating their use of text and imagery as ideological tools against fascism in an era of high illiteracy. It also considers the historical contributions of the Ministry of Public Instruction and Fine Arts and the Misiones Pedagógicas, which highlighted the transformative power of education. Moving to the present, it draws parallels with contemporary picturebooks and graphic novels that defy Spain’s ‘Pact of Oblivion’, showcasing works by renowned authors and illustrators. These modern narratives, like their historical forerunners, intertwine aesthetic appeal with profound socio-historical insights. This research, forming part of the investigation conducted at the CBCP and presented at the 2023 Annual CBCP Conference Publishing Antifascism, emphasizes the critical need for pedagogical strategies based on multiliteracies and critical thinking, thus equipping students to critically engage with dominant narratives and foster a future of social justice.
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Speakers
Dr Aleksandra Wieczorkiewicz is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Polish and Classical Philology and a researcher in the Children’s Literature & Culture Research Team at Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland. Her academic interests include English children’s literature of the Golden Age and children’s literature translation studies. She is the author of an award-winning dissertation on the Polish translation reception of George MacDonald, J.M. Barrie and Cicely Mary Barker; she is also a literary and academic translator. In 2020 Aleksandra completed her PhD fellowship as a Visiting Scholar at the CIRCL, University of Reading; in 2023 she was a Visiting Fellow at the CBCP, UoR, where she carried out the project Translator’s Own Paper? Translated Literature in British Children’s Periodicals of the Victorian Era. She is co-organising the upcoming international conference “Children’s Literature and European Identities” (24-26th October 2024, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland; https://bit.ly/CFP_europeanidentities)
Dr Simona Di Martino is an MHRA postdoctoral fellow at the University of Warwick currently working on her first monograph Italian Gothic Poetry (Liverpool University Press). She holds a PhD in Italian Studies from the University of Warwick. In 2023 Simona was a CBCP Visiting Research Fellow and had the chance to conduct archival research at the MERL Special Collection, at the University of Reading. She organised and took part in national and international conferences and published numerous peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on various topics including the Gothic, children’s literature, and representations of witches in Italian comics. Simona is currently developing a new research project on witch girlhood and female empowerment in Anglo-American and Italian popular print culture for young people. Finally, she is co-organiser of the upcoming conference Seen and Heard: Voices of Transnational Girlhood(s) on Identity, Gender, and Culture Conference to be held at the University of Warwick in April 2024.
Dr Margarida Castellano is a Lecturer in Language and Literature Teaching at the Universitat de València. Author of the award-winning Les altres catalanes. Memòria, identitat i autobiografia en la literatura d’immigració (2018), she has published various chapters and peer-reviewed articles related to the processes of identity formation through literary texts and the uses of multimodal texts in the context of teaching additional languages. Her current research endeavors extend to exploring the integration of multimodal texts and multiliteracy frameworks in additional language instruction, as well as investigating language acquisition within multilingual environments.

Using small grants to kickstart your Digital Humanities ambitions
2024-03-13 11:30 - 13:00 | Online
A short online information session to talk about how to use small research grants to kickstart your Digital Humanities ambitions. The session will be run by Research Services and will cover:

what is Digital Humanities?
Use of digital Humanities in smaller grants
a short talk from an academic who has held a British Academy Small Grant using Digital Humanities
an outline of 3 appropriate small grant opportunities
signposting to further help and resources

Join the meeting here.

Percy Ure Lecture 2024
2024-03-14 08:00 - 17:00 | Edith Morley Building, Van Emden Lecture Theatre, Edith Morley Building, University of Reading, Reading, Berkshire, RG6 6UR, United Kingdom
Speaker: Professor Irene Lemos (Oxford), author of ground-breaking work on the Early Iron Age in Greece, the so-called ‘Euboian koine’, and the crucial site of Lefkandi on Euboia.
More details to be announced.

English Landscapes: screening and discussion
2024-03-18 19:00 - 20:30 | Minghella Studios, Minghella Building, Whiteknights Campus, RG6 6UR, United Kingdom
English Landscapes: screening and discussion
The University of Reading’s Screen Work Group is proud to present a screening and discussion of two exciting projects. Matter of Britain, supported by Arts Council England, is a collaboration between filmmaker Peter Treherne and the local community of Mayfield, in response to the Grail Legend. Thames at Cookham, made by two Reading undergraduate students, is an experimental documentary connecting the local artistic community with the ongoing excavation (by UoR staff and students) of an Anglo-Saxon monastery site in Cookham.
We’re pleased to welcome all the filmmakers to discuss their work, as well as a number of participants and collaborators. There will be a wine reception too.
We hope you will be able to join us for this event, please register to attend here.
Screen Work Group – About Us
The Screen Work Group is a community of researchers at the University of Reading who engage with screen subjects and methods. We have a strong base in the Department of Film, Theatre & Television, but our members work from a variety of disciplines, departments and schools.
Our aim is to bring together varying perspectives and approaches to screen work, and to support UoR colleagues in their engagement with that work.

The Magic of Languages: A Journey of Linguistic Discovery
2024-03-27 16:30 - 17:30 | Edith Morley Building, Van Emden Lecture Theatre, Edith Morley Building, University of Reading, Reading, Berkshire, RG6 6UR, United Kingdom
Did you know that most people in the world speak two or more languages? How do they do it? Join Professor Ludovica Serratrice on a journey of linguistic discovery that will take you from babbling babies to children juggling words and sentences in two languages.

Where Do We Go From Here?
2024-05-01 19:30 - 21:30 | Minghella Studios, Minghella Building, Whiteknights Campus, RG6 6UR, United Kingdom
Where Do We Go From Here?
10 people, one platform. A call for change but will change come?
Through missing a connection, we find we have more in common than that which divides us.
In the breakdown of a system comes the opportunity for something new.
Devised, written, and performed by asylum seekers, refugees, and those with lived experience of (dis)abilities or mental health challenges. This play speaks of our current times through the voices of people who often go unheard. Followed by post-show Q&A hosted by Fiona Talkington, writer, and broadcaster BBC Radio 3.
This performance will include BSL (British Sign Language) for the deaf community and AD (Audio Description) will be available. Wheelchair access is also available. This performance is suitable for 12+. If you need BSL interpretation and/or prefer to be near where the interpreters are more visible, please enquire about this via the Front of House staff before the show and ask them for recommendations. We will also have a BSL interpreter before the show to help with this.
With special thanks to our partners:
Refugee Support Group, University of Reading, LAMDA, Reading Museum, The Museum of English Rural Life, Paff After the Emergency.
Supported by The Arts Council England, Reading Council and Berkshire Community Foundation, thank you for your continued support.
Ticket Prices:
£10
£5 Student Concessions

Landscapes or livelihoods? | Walker Institute
2024-05-07 14:30 - 16:30 | Allen Lab, Room G09
The Walker Institute is inviting you to join in our immersive event on climate and cultural heritage:
LANDSCAPES OR LIVELIHOODS?
Filling a climate knowledge gap and networking with the wider community of climate heritage action!
When: 7 May 2024 from 2:30–4:30pm
Where: Allen Lab; room G09
What does it involve: Four snapshots from colleagues which will offer perspectives of different cultural contexts from Africa and South Asia, through to the Middle East and the UK with colleagues from across the university as well as from visiting scientists joining from Nepal and Senegal. Then an interactive session to explore the issues from different stakeholders’ perspectives.

Tackling global helminth diseases – a veritable can of worms
2024-05-09 11:30 - 12:30 | LO22 G01 London Road Campus
This seminar will outline aspects of research undertaken by the DeWorm3 project (2015-2023), which included a series of community cluster randomised controlled trials to determine the feasibility of interrupting transmission of soil-transmitted helminth (parasitic worm) diseases in focal geographical areas. It will discuss existing evidence and the new methodological approaches needed to generate data necessary for informing potential novel and effective intervention strategies for human helminth infections, highlighting some of the challenges in developing a true One Health approach. Register to attend using the online form.

Colonialism, Coloniality, and Climate Science
2024-05-10 13:30 - 15:30
uti
Jointly organised by the Department of History and Department of Meteorology
1:30-3:00pm on 10 May 2024 (Friday)
Ditchburn Lecture Theatre, JJ Thomson Building
HYBRID. All Welcome. Registration Required
Please complete the registration form. Joining link will be sent if you choose to attend virtually.
Colonialism has widely acknowledged legacies in both the cause of the climate crisis and the inequality of the harms it is causing. But what about the links between colonialism and climate science? How does colonialism, both past and present, shape contemporary practices in climate science? What are the ways in which institutions both perpetuate and challenge these practices? These questions will be explored in a discussion and Q&A with a distinguished panel of scholars.
Chair
Allan Laville – Dean for Diversity and Inclusion
Panellists

Debjani Bhattacharyya – Professor for the History of the Anthropocene, University of Zurich
Deborah Coen – Professor of History & History of Science & Medicine, Yale University
Aïda Diongue-Niang – Technical Advisor, National Agency for Civil Aviation and Meteorology, Senegal, and Vice-Chair of IPCC Working Group I
Roger Pulwarty – Senior Scientist, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, USA
Chi Huyen Truong – Programme Coordinator, Himalayan University Consortium, International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, Nepal

The event will be followed by a reception.

Intermedia/Interarts Workshop 3. The Intermedial Body: Chinese Arts and Beyond
2024-05-10 18:00 - 21:00 | Birkbeck Cinema, 43 Gordon Square, London, WC1H 0PD
A two-day event that explores ‘the intermedial body’, including talks by artists and researchers and a free film screening.

Community Festival 2024: Showcase your research
2024-05-18 11:00 - 16:00 | Whiteknights campus, University of Reading, Whiteknights Campus, Reading, RG6 6AH, United Kingdom
The University’s Community Festival returns to Campus this year on Saturday 18 May.
The Festival brings together local residents, alumni, community groups and small businesses for a programme of live music, theatre and performance, community stands, crafts, street food, and research activities.
Last year’s research programme included a research exhibition featuring stands with hands-on activities, children’s talks, research talks, and a multilingual storytelling activity. The activities were popular and well received by both visitors and participants, and this year’s Festival aims to expand on these activities and attract new audiences.
Participate in this year’s Community Festival
Expressions of interest are now open for research activities for the 2024 Community Festival. Researchers are invited to read the guidelines carefully and complete the short application form by 12pm on Monday 12 February to be considered.
Researchers from all disciplines are encouraged to apply, regardless of previous public engagement experience.

Inequalities: Interdisciplinary Symposium
2024-06-04 10:00 - 16:00 | University of Reading, RG6 6UR
This interdisciplinary symposium aims to explore the relationship between migration, care and intersecting inequalities within the post-pandemic geopolitical landscape of immobility regimes, crisis-driven displacement, care deficits and ageing populations. The symposium will reflect on how paid and unpaid caring arrangements are shaped by intersecting inequalities in diverse migration and transnational contexts. We are interested in papers that address caring practices across the lifecourse, intersectionality and inequalities in access to formal care and social protection globally.
We invite papers (to be presented in person) that address the following themes (but are also open to other related topics):

‘Proximate’ and ‘distant’ intergenerational care in transnational families
Paid and unpaid care and intersecting social differences and inequalities (gender, race, ethnicity, disability/ chronic illness, ageing, socio-economic status, legal status, multilingualism, education and so on)
Children’s and young people’s caring responsibilities in diverse migration contexts
(Im-)mobility and care regimes and differential welfare entitlements and rights
Forced transnationality, agency and social protection among refugees and asylum seekers
Language brokering, literacy mediation and access to support
Care ethics and cross-cultural understandings of care, wellbeing, health and illness
Methodological and ethical approaches to researching caring relations, migrant/transnational family lives and inequalities

These highly politicised and emotive issues pose key challenges and dilemmas for policymakers, practitioners and family members, as well as researchers and academics interested in transnational migration, care and social protection.
In addition to in person paper presentations, the Symposium will include:

Transnational ageing: theorising digital kinning and the multi-directionality of care: Keynote lecture by Professor Loretta Baldassar, Edith Cowan University, Western Australia (hybrid – online access available)
Intergenerational Care, Inequalities and Wellbeing among Transnational Families in Europe: Plenary presenting key findings of the ‘Transnational Families in Europe research project, led by Professor Ruth Evans, University of Reading and Dr. Rosa Mas Giralt, University of Leeds. The presentation will be followed by a panel discussion with leading academics, practitioners and policymakers (hybrid – online access available).

A selection of papers presented at the Symposium will be included in an Edited Collection (open access) on Care, Inequalities and Wellbeing across Generations in Transnational Families.
Registration
Registration fee (includes lunch and refreshments): £30
A small number of bursaries are available for postgraduates and practitioners (please provide details of expected travel costs when enquiring about this). Contact: r.evans@reading.ac.uk.
Abstract submission
Please send your paper title and abstract (maximum of 250 words), with author(s), email address and affiliations, by 8 April 2024 to Jodie Ellis (j.ellis2@reading.ac.uk).
Please also indicate if you wish your paper to be considered for the Edited Collection on Care, Inequalities and Wellbeing across Generations in Transnational Families.
Further information
Contact: Ruth Evans: r.evans@reading.ac.uk
Web: Transnational Families in Europe: Care, Inequalities and Wellbeing, https:/research.reading.ac.uk/transnational-families/
